As we shift into Autumn, we will dive into experiences we keep in shadow and create new, fantastic tales to tell.
When we story slant, we transform tough personal experiences that might be hard to share into fairy tales. It is an alchemy of fact and feeling that helps us forge new myths to live by.
In this workshop we will dig into story types and structure, archetypes, symbols, and techniques for telling your story live. You’ll come away with your own personal tale and a chance to tell it to a group.
“We need to double down on the storytelling, and find new ways to tell out our meanings. . .”
-Katherine May (Enchanted)
While this is art practice and not therapy, many of us will be working with some uncomfortable past experiences. This community is built on mutual respect and support. Come prepared to hold one another up as we create our stories together. If you feel you’re dealing with something extra raw that you’re not yet ready to reflect on together, this might not be the time yet to story slant that experience.
If you have more questions, check out the You May Be Wondering section below.
Register Now for Story Slanting at Charlie’s Queer Books!
The stories we tell matter. Learn to craft and tell your own story this witchy season.
We will meet at Charlie’s Queer Books (465 N 36th St. Seattle, charliesqueerbooks.com) for five Mondays: October 19 – November 16, from 5:30 – 7pm.
Accessibility: the workshop space is up one flight of stairs.
The workshop is free to attend, thanks to a grant from 4Culture, but space is limited. Register now!
Please reach out with questions.
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You may be wondering …
- WHO AM I? I am a trained folklorist and teaching artist. I combine years of performance with experience as a writing teacher to meld the practices of personal experience narrative with classic storytelling. Find out more about me here.
- HOW CAN I USE MY STORY? Slanting stories is a technique to tell the full emotional reality of our experiences and beliefs. The work has helped me develop new paths for innovation in my non fiction writing. Past participants have used their story slants as performance pieces, children’s books and even speeches at ceremonies.
- WHAT DO WE DO IN THIS WORKSHOP? We will participate in small group and solitary exercises, from free writing to collective story mapping and divinatory plotting activities. We will tell stories together throughout the course, like kids around a campfire.
- WHO IS THIS FOR? You do not need to be a writer or performer to be a storyteller. You just need to have imagination and willingness to engage with a sense of wonder and creativity.
- You are probably excited by fairy tales. You may be a poet or an essayist, a writer of Cli-Fi, but you’re keen on metaphors of archetypes and symbolism beneath plot points.
- You might find yourself drawn to experimental stories that disguise big themes in simple language and smuggle subversive ideas in under the skirts of wonder tales.
- You might have a story, an experience, that is particularly thorny or hard to tell and you want to try dressing it up in another skin to see what it will teach you.